


Federation Fliers

by Ladybugbear2



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Catelyn Stark (background), Established Relationship, F/M, Flying, JB can fly, JB family, Modern AU, Selwyn Tarth (background), Stars, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:36:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26021290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladybugbear2/pseuds/Ladybugbear2
Summary: She belonged in the sky. She had a grace to her movements on the ground, but in the sky she was ethereal.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 37
Kudos: 80
Collections: Jaime x Brienne Fic Exchange 2020





	Federation Fliers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KayJayTeal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayJayTeal/gifts).



> Thank you thank you to my wonderful encouragers Jessi and Sami, and to my wonderful betas Sami and Brynn. Y'all are amazing and thank you for letting me whine at you. 
> 
> Thank you KayJayTeal for your wonderful prompts! 
> 
> I hope y'all like this!

There are few things Brienne hates more than being grounded. 

She wants to fly. She needs to fly. 

The restrictions on her flight are never more irksome than when she’s just come back from a mission. She understands that there are policies in place. She understands that the Federation has those rules to ensure there isn’t any burnout in their Fliers and to ensure that they stay as safe as possible. 

But having the sky look like it does tonight and being unable to fly is something that truly makes her want to, for once in her life, dodge the rules set out to make her safe and take to the sky. 

She’s pacing the landing strip in the backyard when she hears the door open and shut. She feels more than sees Jaime come to stand next to her, halting her pacing. 

“You need to eat something, Bluebell. The sky will still be there when your rest period is done.” She can hear the exasperation in his voice. 

Jaime is fine with being grounded. He likes to fly but he doesn’t need to. It’s one of the side effects of being made into a Flier instead of being born one. 

When the first parents had noticed that their children were hovering over their cribs or jumping just a little too far as they grew, they had been understandably worried. They’d gone to the police at first, thinking they would help, but then the children had been taken away, “to be kept safe” they’d said. In truth, the children were being studied. 

It was a well-known fact that the few great houses thought themselves to be far above the rest of the population of Westeros. Their houses were better, their jobs were better, their children were better. But when word got to them from their contacts at the police that some children from lower houses, even those with no ancient house at all, were developing the ability to fly, and their children weren’t showing the same aptitude?

Well, that wouldn’t do at all. 

The heads of those few great houses worked with the police to round up the children and run tests--starting with the initial thirty who were reported--before the parents realized what was happening and stopped drawing attention to themselves. 

Once they had the special children, who they named Fliers, they were able to isolate the gene that gave them their abilities. And for a select few houses? The ones that were willing to go that extra mile to be the best? They became what would later be known as Harvesters. They stole these genes from the Fliers, and put them in their own children. Thus their children were given the ability to fly, but not the innate sense of aptitude for it. Not the need for it. 

When the parents realized what was happening, they formed their own coalition. They went through legislation at first, before they realized that the great houses were too entrenched and the government was too corrupt. So they formed the Federation. They worked with the few great houses who disagreed with the practices of the Harvesters, and with them came the legitimacy they needed--and the funding--and they were able to get their children back. But those Fliers who were harvested came back changed. There was a knowledge in them, even the ones who were very small, that they belonged in the air. That there was something that had been stolen from them. 

Brienne’s father was one of the original children. He’d gotten lucky, he’d been retrieved. But the age that Selwyn had been taken meant he knew what he’d lost on a physical and intellectual level and because of that he would do anything in his power to stop it from happening to others. He’d joined the Federation as soon as he was old enough and it was because of them that he was proud, not fearful, that one of his children was born a Flier as well.

The children born with the gift were easy to find, for both the Harvesters and the Federation, and it was always a race to see who could get to them first. The Federation had several teams; their duties were varied, but the main directive was to save the Flier children. When one team was out on a mission, the rest of the Fliers needed to stay grounded. Children were easiest to take--they didn’t put up as much of a fight and the gene was easier to isolate. But that didn’t mean that adults weren’t taken as well. And because of that, they needed to stay out of sight, isolated in their two-person teams. There had been too many incidents, too many people taken by the Harvesters for them to be able to fly without caution. 

Jaime, being one of the very few Harvest children to join the Federation, was always relieved when he and Brienne returned from a successful mission. It meant several things at once: he’d saved a child from his father (truly the worst of the Harvesters), he’d gotten to go flying with Brienne, and he wouldn’t have to go on another mission for at least two months. It was always difficult leaving their children. The instant relief Brienne got from being in the air was always obvious on her face, but so too was the guilt that she felt in being away from their family. For Jaime the ordeal was much more difficult. He didn’t get the relief - just the guilt. 

But times like this, when the mission hadn’t gone to plan, when the mission they’d been set was a raid as opposed to a rescue, Brienne couldn’t be settled. She was always restless, even after successful expeditions. But for the harder ones, she wouldn’t be able to fully reach a sense of calm until she was in the air again. 

“The sky never looks like that, not this close to the city. There are millions of stars up there and I’m stuck on the ground.” She was vibrating from the energy built up, the energy from wanting to go and the energy it took to keep herself grounded. “I should be up there, I want to be up there.”

“Then let’s go. We can go out to the ranch.” He grabbed her hand and brushed the back of it with his thumb, bringing his stump over to rest against her other hand, doing his best to steady her while he tried to convince her to do the one thing he’d never been able to convince her to do. 

“No, no, we can’t. The kids are inside, anyway, alone.” She glanced back at the house, almost expecting to see a crater where their house used to stand. 

“Your dad came over to watch them; he knows how you get.” Jaime was tugging on her hand now, trying to get her to head toward the car, and patting the back of his jeans when she sent a quizzical look his way. “I have the keys. I even have food in the car.” 

“How long have you been planning this?” It wasn’t that Brienne didn’t trust Jaime. She trusted him with her life. But she knew that he came up with ideas that weren’t always feasible. 

“Long enough to get this directly from Catelyn herself.” He let go of her hand so he could fish a piece of paper out of his back pocket. 

“Catelyn Stark, on behalf of the Federation, hereby grants Brienne and Jaime Tarth the permission to go out to the training ranch and fly from 1900 to 2230.” Brienne’s head shot up. “You got us 3 ½ hours? To fly? Outside of a mission?” 

“I know how much you need to fly, Bluebell. I talked to Catelyn about it and she said that she’d never had another Flier with the kind of willpower you possess. She was willing to grant you this boon, and the official permission you need to do this once every off-period. Apparently most of the other Fliers don’t ask for permission.” He nudged her with his shoulder and she shot him a grin. Not even the revelation that other Fliers ignored the rules of the Federation was able to ruin her good mood. 

“Let’s go, then! Do I need my suit? No, of course I don’t, we’re going to the ranch.” It was rare that Brienne became so excited about a prospect that she couldn’t stand still, and even rarer that she fumbled her words. That was much more Jaime’s bag, and she could tell that Jaime was enjoying being on the receiving end of it for once. She rolled his eyes at his grin before grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the car. 

The drive to the ranch was almost interminable. The only thing that made it bearable was Jaime’s stump in her hand and his horrible singing that didn’t stop until they finally, finally, made it to the ranch. 

They were waved in with no fuss and before long, they were out on the runway. There was a force-shield around the whole of the ranch itself, but the runways themselves had the most security they could manage. Brienne could feel the difference in the air, but the thrill of being allowed to stretch her body to its fullest potential made the difference fully worth it. 

She took off without waiting for Jaime; he didn’t need this like she did. But it wasn’t long before he joined her in the air with what looked like a picnic basket. 

“What on earth are you doing? Why don’t you just wait until we’ve landed?” She knew that Jaime sometimes felt like he didn’t do enough to support her because he couldn’t quite understand what she felt. He tended to overdo it on the romance as a result, trying his best to make sure she felt loved and supported.

“Floating picnic! You can’t say you’ve never wanted to live out your Mary Poppins dream of having tea in the air.” He was opening the picnic basket as he talked and pulling out the things to make sandwiches, all of which he piled into her arms so they wouldn’t fall. “Maybe cross your legs? We can use our laps to make things. Or we can use the picnic basket?” 

Brienne was fully used to his ideas and how little forethought tended to go into them - barring her flying permission slip, of course, something that still, hours later, gave her a giddy sense of delight. “Hold the picnic basket out,” Brienne told him once it became clear Jaime was just as likely to drop something as eat it. “You can be the legs of the table.” 

They were able to get the sandwiches made with minimal fuss and before long they were eating and passing a thermos full of hot chocolate between them. 

Jaime floated down with the picnic basket after a while, admiring Brienne as she flipped and flew as fast as she could. Her experience with having to eat and then fly immediately after ensured that she didn’t get sick from the exercise, something he wasn’t always able to manage. 

It was always exhilarating to watch her fly, but usually Jaime was flying right next to her. Getting to watch her from the ground was something else entirely. She belonged in the sky. She had a grace to her movements on the ground, but in the sky she was ethereal. 

He flew up to meet her after a while, the need to join his wife outweighing the need to watch her. 

They were nearing the end of their allotted time when Brienne tugged on his hand and had him float onto his back next to her so they could watch the sky together. The view from their house had been amazing, but out at the ranch it was like being in another world. 

“The stars always make me feel like there’s a reason for my existence. If the Seven could make stars in the sky and have them look like that, then they must have made Fliers for a reason too.” The sound of her voice startled him at first but as she spoke he turned his head to look at her and saw her face in profile, her jaw and her nose, her lips and her long pale lashes. The love he felt for this one human was more than he could ever describe.

It made him laugh sometimes that his father had conspired to make him into a pale imitation of what she was born to be. As if stealing and implanting a gene could create someone who could even hold a candle to her. 

“The stars aren’t half as bright as you, Bluebell.” He knew even as he said it what her response would be and was unsurprised when she whacked his shoulder before grabbing his arm and pulling him close. 

He didn’t need to fly. But as long as Brienne did, he would join her.


End file.
